


False Imprisonment

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [45]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Abusive Reginald Hargreeves, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, Humor, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Klaus Hargreeves Whump, One Shot, One Shot Collection, POV Ben Hargreeves, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves Bashing, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:22:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26224108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: An intense panic began to rise in Klaus. It was dawning on him that he was likely going to be locked in this tiny room. At least the cells at the station have bars, this was just a box. Just like somewhere else, somewhere Klaus couldn’t stand to think of. “No, no, no!” he spluttered, jumping up from his seat. The security guard turned to shoot him a threatening look. Klaus shuffled back a couple steps, holding his hands up in surrender. “Don’t leave me in here, please.” he pleaded, trying to stop tears building up in his eyes. He couldn’t be left in here.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [45]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869709
Comments: 4
Kudos: 160





	False Imprisonment

**Author's Note:**

> It’s not super mature but I rated it that way just incase. Pretty angsty at parts but also lighthearted at others. Big TW for PTSD.
> 
> This chronologically is before Banglessness and Pink Sunglasses (other parts of this series) but can be read on its own.

Places where fancy people hang out were marvellous for pickpocketing. Ben was currently traipsing behind his brother, watching him purposefully bump into people in the department store they’d entered. He was actually having rather a lot of luck, probably because he was bumping into people so forcefully; they really had no choice but to grab onto him. Ben knew his brother was going to get caught though, as he was being greedy - as usual. Klaus was on a winning streak, so he was intending on enacting his plan on every floor of the damn store. This meant that he had no way to escape. Idiot, Ben thought. They were currently on the second floor, and Ben had given up trying to warn Klaus. He would never listen.

“I’m _so sorry_!” Klaus exclaimed with a gasp as he barged into a woman. He managed to pinch the wallet from her purse in the process. He was fairly certain it would be an expensive wallet, he only picked her because she looked like she could be a Kardashian. As he was hastily shoving it into his own bag, Klaus noticed the woman hadn’t been alone. Oopsies.

The very large man she was with lunged for the wallet in Klaus’ grip. He knew he had enough shit to pawn, but he was just stubborn. It would be giving in to just drop the thing and run. So he dodged out of the man’s way... clumsily knocking over a mannequin. The bang the thing made as it hit the ground was fucking dramatic, even for Klaus’ standards. Some _Mall Cop_ looking security guard was hollering for Klaus to stop as he waddled over. Klaus was pretty confident he could outrun the bastard, so he skidded away towards the direction of the escalator he came up on. Except when he got to it, he realised it was an _up_ escalator - not down. Klaus winced as he got on his tip toes to try and find the down one, but he couldn’t spot it - there were too many goddamn displays in the way. “Don’t even try it.” Ben groaned from Klaus’ side as he clearly considered just attempting to run down the up escalator. 

“You _know_ I’m gonna do it just because you told me not to!” Klaus taunted as he stumbled to start trying to climb down the moving stairs. Maybe he could press the emergency stop button, it was moving pretty fast. Or he could slide down the bannister like kids on movies did - he never did as a child, dad would’ve probably thrown him down them as punishment. Fuck it, he could _totally_ do this. He could do this in his sleep. He was a trained killer... kinda. This was easy peasy lemon squeezie!

—

“Do you have to hold my arm so fucking tight?” Klaus huffed as the security guard dragged him through the door labeled STAFF ONLY. The ignorant prick wouldn’t even respond. It was killing Klaus not to joke _”Is that a walkie-talkie in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?”_ but he didn’t feel up to a beating. “Asshole.” Klaus murmured dejectedly as he was shoved into a small room with a lonely plastic chair and some old stock. After pushing Klaus down onto the chair, the security guard attempted to yank the bag from Klaus’ shoulder. “Fuck you.” Klaus spat as he started a petty game of tug of war with the man.

“I don’t get goddamn payed enough for this.” the security guard grumbled as he outweighed Klaus and heaved the bag from his grasp. Klaus stomped his foot on the floor like a five year old, letting out an annoyed grunt. He knew he was pushing his luck with the courts, they’d only force him to rehab so many times before giving up and sending him to prison for a while.

As the security guard began to saunter from the room, an intense panic began to rise in Klaus. It was dawning on him that he was likely going to be locked in this tiny room. At least the cells at the station have bars, this was just a box. Just like somewhere else, somewhere Klaus couldn’t stand to think of. “No, no, no!” he spluttered, jumping up from his seat. The guard turned to shoot him a threatening look. Klaus shuffled back a couple steps, holding his hands up in surrender. “Don’t leave me in here, please.” he pleaded, trying to stop tears building up in his eyes. He couldn’t be left in here. _He couldn’t be left in here._

A scoff of disbelief left the security guard. “It ain’t Guantanamo Bay.” he chuckled, looking at Klaus like he was an absolute idiot. Klaus was fully aware he was an idiot, but this wasn’t his idiocy speaking. Klaus chewed harshly on his lip, trying to calm himself down. “Don’t shut the door, please.” Klaus whined as the guard huffed and made his way out of the room. If he locked the fucking door Klaus would kick it down himself. “ _Please_ , I can giv-“ 

Ben sighed with exasperation. “Please don’t try and _seduce_ your way out of here.” he interrupted his brother, causing Klaus to cut himself off and turn to glance anxiously at Ben. “We don’t need solicitation, too.” Ben grunted, looking down at the ground so he didn’t have to meet his brother’s eye. In Klaus’ distraction, the man sauntered from the room and locked the door behind him. Ben’s brother began frantically pulling on the door handle, as if that would unlock it. This wasn’t going to end well, Ben predicted. It had taken until his death to understand why Klaus was so fucked up, and even then he only knew a few snippets. One thing Ben knew for sure was that trapping his brother in an enclosed space was a recipe for disaster.

”This must be-“ Klaus yanked harder on the handle “-against the constitution?!” he yelled through the door, turning to give Ben an uncertain glance. Ben shook his head, causing Klaus to harshly groan. “It has to be like kidnapping,” he heaved his weight against the door “or like I-I’m a hostage or something?!” Klaus turned to give his brother yet another unsure look, Ben shook his head again, causing Klaus to shove his own head against the door in frustration. “False imprisonment?” he wearily pleaded to Ben, his face filled with pure desperation. The _are you serious?_ face Ben returned was enough of an answer.

Klaus pulled his hand back from the door and shoved his nails to his mouth to nervously nibble on them. He paused to spit out a chunk of nail polish he’d inadvertently bitten off. “I can’t.” he whispered, Ben wasn’t sure if it was to him or to himself. Klaus did that quite often, Ben being unsure if he was being addressed or not. “I can’t.” Klaus repeated, kicking at the door in torment. Kicking it again and again and again, until he eventually gave up and slumped down to the floor. 

“It’s okay,” Ben wandered over to his brother, crouching down next to him on the floor “you’re not... there.” he murmured. Ben didn’t have a clue where _there_ was, but he knew it was traumatic. After just about two years of being with his brother, Ben had only grown more angry at their so called father. What the hell had he done to Klaus? His brother had predictably scrunched his eyes up, now running his hands through his hair. Klaus was pulling so tight on his curls that his fingers were turning red from lack of circulation. “Klaus.” Ben exclaimed, trying to snap his brother out of whatever this was. His brother opened his eyes to look up at him, tears spilling from them. “It’s okay, we’re just in a closet or something...” Ben explained, peering over his shoulder trying to work out what the hell this room even was. 

“In a closet.” Klaus repeated absentmindedly, scratching at his legs like he does when he’s really high - except Ben knew he wasn’t. The two other occasions Ben had witnessed this claustrophobia, his brother clawed his skin raw. Thankfully he was scratching at his legs this time, which were covered by the fabric of his pants. “No, no, no.” Klaus whimpered, shaking his head and shoving his hands over his ears. Once again his brother scrunched his eyes tightly closed. He would begin to wail soon, that much Ben knew. Klaus’ brother sighed wearily. He didn’t know how on Earth he could help him. It wasn’t like he could touch him, and even if he could - he was certain that wouldn’t end well. Ben gulped anxiously thinking about how things would go down when the cops turned up...

—

“The fuck is he doing?” the cop grumbled, leaning over the EMT to take a peek. The EMT gave him a fierce side eye, causing the cop to raise his eyebrows and take a few steps back.

It was a relief that the security guard had called for an EMT once he’d heard Klaus freaking out, Ben didn’t like to imagine what would’ve happened had the cops turned up first. “He’s having some kind of episode,” she responded curtly as she rubbed gently on Klaus’ back. He’d began to calm down, no longer whimpering and slowly stopping hyperventilating. His head was still tucked between his knees, his arms clasped tightly around his legs. “I think he needs sedating, before you take him to the station.” the EMT calmly explained over her shoulder. Ben saw Klaus momentarily stop hyperventilating, which caused Ben to release a morbid snort. Of course he’d be snapped out of his trance by the promise of benzodiazepines. Ben just hoped he didn’t have enough opiates in his system for the interaction to cause some kind of overdose. For once, Ben actually wanted his brother to get some drugs.

—

“Court ordered fucking _therapy_?!” Klaus whined dramatically, shoving a cigarette in his mouth aggressively. “I mean really, _therapy_?!” he loudly complained, pacing around in circles as he lit his cigarette. Ben was tempted to tell him that manically ranting to yourself outside the courthouse probably wouldn’t help plead his case, but he decided it best to just let him vent. “Why couldn’t-“ Klaus took a ridiculously long drag, causing him to run out of breath and splutter “-they have just sent me to jail?!” Ben was actually extremely happy with this outcome. His brother needed therapy like he needed oxygen. Ben knew he would’ve never been convinced to go had he not been literally forced to. There was a very distinct chance that Klaus would choose not to attend, and get himself sent to jail - but Ben was hoping he could beg him into going. “ _Flashback_...” Klaus muttered dismissively under his breath.

“Do you wanna go throw rocks at the academy?” Ben suggested with a grin, he knew his brother always enjoyed that. Sure enough, Klaus stopped his pacing and flashed Ben a mischievous smirk with a giddy nod.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Ben and Klaus’ relationship and when I was writing these I found it interesting thinking of how much shit they had to have gone through over the years.
> 
> Also I have PTSD and was really impressed with how the first season portrayed it. The second season was good too, like I’m glad they didn’t just wipe it from Klaus’ character.


End file.
